Reviews by sponberg:

Jet black, as it should be. Aroma of roastiness with a serious hop bite - almost pine tree like.

Great hop-roast malt balance - hard to achieve when shooting for a hoppy RIS. Starts with a coffee-chocolate roastiness along with a spicy, piney hoppiness that's really, really appetizing - and underneath it is a toffeeish malt. Finishes with a spicy roastiness. Niiice! Silky mouthfeel is appropriate. Would love to have another, but do I look like I'm made of money?

More User Reviews:

My first choice on tap as I walked into the Barcade this past Friday...thank the beer gods there was still some availabe after Thursday night's event.
Arrived in a chalice glass a solid black color with no light passing thru...a full finger and a half of creamy tan head. The head disappeared fairly quickly, but a thin layer remained for most of the offering.
Served just slightly chilled so the scent was very nice...dark chocolate up front with an espresso backbone.
The taste was very nice...again, more chocolate than coffee, but the malt sweetness showed up to balance this one beautifully.
Mouthfeel was solid...silky smooth texture, medium bodied and the carbonation was just where I like to see it.
A very dangerous RIS at 10%, as this one goes down so easily...can't wait to see this one come up to Mass...it won't last long.

22oz. label-less brown bottle poured into a snifter. Thanks to the brewmaster, Shane, for the bottle. Traded straight from his cellar. Drank nearly a year ago, review from my notes.

A: Pours black, not overly thick. Decent head with good retention and lacing.

S: Nice roasty character with a thick molasses sweetness. A good alcohol still punches through from nice aging.

T/M: This had to have been real potent when fresh. big roasted and charred notes with more of the thick molasses sweetness. Alcohol has matured nicely and is still pleasantly present. A light smoky and lighter peaty character inthe back. A bit of cherries or berries in the sweetness. Full bodied but not overly thick with higher, Belgian like carbonation.

If you've never understood the "soy sauce" flavor some people ascribe to stouts, this will do it. Chocolate and raisins in the nose but dominated by soy sauce on the palate. Not a bad mouth feel but it's hard to o get past that flavor.

Purchased at Eagle Provisions, open early in the day so I can get these good beers. Batch 74 bottle 759. Not a thick RIS, and yet a very tasty one. Good combination of chocolate malt, well carbonated.Good roasting and its in the smell. Fine craft, very drinkable, smooth.

Pours a pitch black, with several fingers of thick, dark mocha colored head. Once things have settled down, swirling the glass fires this up to a near finger, leaving back a big foamy cascade that settles into heavy swathes of foamy lacing. The aroma smells of STRONG dark fruit, which mingles with sweet notes of chocolate and toffee and an acrid espresso character to impart a powerful smoky tanginess in the nose. The high alcohol here really helps bring a lot of that extra sweetness out.

The taste is sweet and sticky the whole way through, with notes of alcohol, chocolate, caramel, and dominant dark fruit flavors, with cherries are really sticking out to me. Some roasted coffee character is present and seems to bring most of whatever bitterness is left in this (as any leftover hops seem to be long gone by now), leaving behind a bit of a meaty and burnt smokiness on the breath and dry lingering sugars and pithy fruit on the tongue. The mouthfeel is full bodied with a thick creaminess to it that is surprisingly still pretty lively feeling in spots. The longer this sits in the mouth and the carbonation starts to lessen, more of an underlying slick chewiness starts to show itself. I will say that the alcohol is beautifully hid here and thankfully so, as I don’t think that a stinging warmth here would have matched up well at all with all of that sweetness, and the lack of it helps keep the drinkability of this up for the most part.

Well, I’d say that is you still have bottles of this left in the cellar; it’s time to drink them. Not only has this peaked but seems to be on the decline, as nearly all of the bitterness has been aged out, leaving behind a sweet mélange of malt, alcohol, and fruit flavors. At this point, it’s not by any means terrible but the complexity just isn’t there anymore and it definitely isn’t going to be getting any better. I wish that I had gotten to this one a bit sooner.

A: The stout has an abundantly thick three finger mocha-colored head. The stout itself is very black.

S: Aroma is very offputting. It is slightly vinous but it lacks depth. It seems like a coffee bean aroma, but fresher and not roasted.

T: Taste seems to refocus the beer, providing a very full bodied taste. The first flavors are a bold roasted malt strength that doesn't hide the alcohol. Vinous flavors continue to emerge, but that odd aroma from the nose continues to pop up here. Luckily it fades away and finishes with a long roasted malt chocolate flavor.

M: The impy stout qualities are very good, adding a depth to the stout, but that aroma continues to confound me.

HUGE piney hop aroma lets me know right from the beginning that I have a West Coast approach on my hands. Dark brown to black body with a firm thumb thick mocha head. Bitterness is more from hops than roast in the fore. Some chocolate malt throught he middle, but mostly this is just a big hop bomb of an Imperial...or what I like to call an IPA/Stout. I can appreciate that some people like hoppy beers, but when I pay $18 for an Imperial Stout and all I get is a Dark IPA it irks ne...whatever. Perhaps with age this could become a solid brew, but right now this is just a hopped up mess and has next to none of the flavors youd expect in an Imperial stout.

A ton of beautiful rich fat foamy carmel colored head easily reaches the top of the glass standing over three fingers. Nice retention and massive waves of lace are left. Body is definitely imperial blackness. Nose is full with zesty almost peppered spice character with hints of coco and alchol. Enters the mouth with some bittersweet chocolate and slightly soured dark fruit. A creamy dark richness glazes the back of the tongue and turns back to the dry bitter coco side and leads to the same mouthfeel. Solid drinkability as the alchol is nicely hidden in this one.

The stout itself was black enough to block out the sun, if I were to pick a color it would have to be total eclipse. Wafting from the espresso foam head was a delectably sweet aroma of malty chocolate and almond with some charred coffee going on to. It was a very complex nose, and I'm sure I have missed some of it, so feel free to drop us a line and let us know what you thought. As alluring as the smell was, it didn't compare to the rounded, balanced taste of the Bolshoi. The blitz of sweet booze opened up into a garden of bitter bakers chocolate, heavily roasted coffee, and some berry/cherry flavor. It had a smooth, heavy mouth feel, but totally pleasant.

Appears black with dark brown edges and a large, fluffy, tan head of foam that that never really fades away. Lots of scattered lacing is left around the glass.
Smell is of roasty malt, ripe fruit, bitter baker's chocolate, along with a touch of mild tartness.
Taste is much of the mentioned aromas with some roasty cocoa nib flavors coming through.
Mouthfeel is full bodied, roasty, fizzy up front with a long, lasting, roasted finish.

Poured into an imperial pint glass, formed 1 1/2" brown head over the opaque dark brown/black brew. Head goes nowhere fast, with heavy, coating lacing. Aroma is hearty chocolate sweet, coffee bitter, and piney hops. Taste is all that the nose hinted, and more so. Mouthfeel is velvety, and drinkability is only limited by the fact that the sweetness may eventually overpower, and/or the alcohol will leave you in a heap somewhere. Nice brew.

Well they finally bottled something, hip hip hooray. About time. I love many of their beers, but have only had them on tap for the most part, and therefore haven't commented on as many as I could have. But oh man, this one's a doozy. Pours an opaque black, no discrepencies. Nice head. Even took a break from this one, went outside, and the head is still inhabiting the mug. I'm a big fan of balance, and this beer takes that ideal to the exreme. There's a big difference between some itty bitty balance beam and the big time tight rope, and this one walks the line. Plenty o' hops contribute to the supposed 126 ibu's this one boasts, as well as lots of roasters contributing to the bitterness. Tasty, and relatively complex, in a sort of bitter, malty, hoppy, explosion. Mostly a big fat malt muscles, but plenty of soft milkness to go around, plus a nice, oddly, but also perfectly placed citrussy hop profile. Chocolate covered citrussyness, plus bitter excellency. Dry. Heavy hitter.

I shared a bottle of this lightly chilled with a friend while recording a podcast on the subject of Sixpoint Craft Brewing last night. We tasted it after we tried the Apollo Wheat and the jet black coffee look of the stout was interesting as the contrasting cream head was nestled on top of the darkness. It had an interesting smell that reminded me of some of the better known Belgian Dubbels.

The first taste was very deep and the following second revealed more about the malty strength with an edge of hops dryness. It was unlike the signature Sixpoint overt display of hops, which made it very accessible.

As we took the bottle down, I reflected that the Bolshoi was a very good ale and probably a worthy mark to judge others of its kind. It's only downfall is the price, which is something different for a brewery that almost entirely makes beers for tap. It was batch 74, bottle 483.

Thanks to Alex for pulling this bottle out at Mike's bachelor-party tasting. Served in a Savor snifter.

Pours dark brown with a fairly-massive mocha-colored head and a nice bit of light lacing as it goes down. The nose brings some chocolate and roast, bordering on Whoppers candy. Behind that, I got a bit of light cherry-skin character and red and black licorice. Also, a bit of light brown-paper character toward the end.

The flavor brings a lot of malted chocolate as well as a faint roast character. The mouthfeel helps this one along--medium body that brings forward a creamy and smooth brew. The finish is somewhat dry and is definitely lacking in booziness. I seemed to be in the minority not really digging this one, but it had a lot of interesting components and was something I had wanted to try for quite awhile now.